7 attackers, 3 civilians killed in Nangarhar assaults

JALALABAD (PAN team (PRT) compound in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday.

Four suicide bombers detonated their explosive-laden vehicles close to the PRT office, the governor’s spokesman said. Another two bombers were shot dead by police, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said, adding a seventh rebel later succumbed to his injuries.

The attackers were laced with rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grades, hand-grenades and suicide belts.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) office in Jalalabad said three rockets were fired into the airport, causing no casualties. The force said in a statement one of the attackers was killed near the PRT office.

The airfield and the PRT are situated in an area of Behsud district. The district chief, Niamatullah Noorzai, said three attackers and as many civilians were killed and another two people injured.

But Public Health Director Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad said one dead body and an injured person, both civilians, had been brought to the civil hospital from the scene.

The Taliban said dozens of armed fighters were involved in the assaults. Their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the assailants clashed with security forces for three hours, inflicting heavy casualties on foreign and local troops.

frm/ma